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7-29-15-Abhaya Datye, department chair and Distinguished Regents Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of New Mexico, has been elected as a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. The rank of fellow is the highest grade of membership in the organization.

Datye is internationally known for his research in catalysis and nanomaterials. He has been at UNM for more than 30 years.

7-27-15-For the University of New Mexico’s LOBOMotorSports team, it’s been a sweet few years. The team has done well at the Formula SAE competitions, and seemed to do better each year.

In 2014, the team placed 11th overall. In 2013, they took 12th place, and the team scored a 10th-place finish in 2012.

But at the Formula SAE competition June 17-20 in Lincoln, Neb., the team placed 33rd overall out of 80 international entries, lower than their performance in recent years.

John Russell, director of UNM’s Formula SAE program and Halliburton Professor of Mechanical Engineering, said the team’s overall finish was not what they were hoping for, but it’s all part of the up-and-down nature of racing.

“We’ve had three lucky years, but this year, there was a horrible sequence of events — things broke and we got behind all the time,” Russell said. “But hey, that’s racing.”

7-23-15-Edl Schamiloglu, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico, was awarded two Defense University Research Instrumentation Program grants from the Department of Defense.

The first award is from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) for $960,156 for a project called "Instrumentation Support for AFOSR Center of Excellence on the Science of Electronics in Extreme Electromagnetic Environments." Co-principal investigators are Payman Zarkesh-Ha, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Sameer Hemmady, a research associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Fernanda Yamasaki, a doctoral student at the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil who is currently working with Edl Schamiloglu, received the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference in Austin, Texas, in June.

Yamasaki has spent the last six months working with Edl Schamiloglu, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, being funded by the agency’s Sandwich Program.

7-22-15-University of New Mexico scientists and collaborators have documented elevated concentrations of uranium and co-occurring metals in abandoned uranium mine wastes at a site on the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona, according to a paper published recently in Environmental Science & Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

Results of the investigation conducted last year at the Claim 28 Mine in the Blue Gap-Tachee Chapter suggest that abandoned mine wastes can be a major source of potential metal exposure to local people and livestock living close to abandoned mine waste sites.

“The Navajo people who live next to the Claim 28 site could potentially be at risk of exposure to uranium and other metal contaminants,” said Johanna M. Blake, a postdoctoral geochemist in the UNM Department of Chemistry and lead author of the article. “The mobilization of uranium from mine wastes to water sources, coupled with the small grain sizes we observed in the wastes in the laboratory, present potentially significant ingestion and inhalation exposures to the people who live nearby.”

7-13-15-The nation’s largest national laboratory and New Mexico’s flagship university on Monday expanded their commitment to work together to help redefine the future of science and engineering for national security, partner on research and jointly recruit top researchers.

Sandia National Laboratories President and Director Paul Hommert and University of New Mexico Provost Chaouki Abdallah signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a Strategic Alliance at UNM’s Centennial Engineering Center.

“With this MOU, Sandia and UNM commit to a deeper relationship to strengthen both organizations by exchanging personnel, developing innovative joint research programs and educating the next generation of national security leaders,” Hommert said.

UNM President Robert G. Frank said, “In research, as in real estate, location is key! Not many research universities have a national lab as their neighbor, but we do,” said “This agreement with Sandia Labs strengthens that close working partnership and pools our intellectual resources.”

7-10-15-Graduate students and early-career researchers from around the world are gathering at the University of New Mexico for the 2015 Sandia National Laboratories Nonlinear Mechanics and Dynamics Summer Research Institute.

The institute, which is being held at the Manufacturing Training and Technology Center (MTTC) at the UNM Science and Technology Park, brings together technical researchers from various backgrounds with the goal of developing collaborations and making progress toward solving major challenges in the area of joints and interfacial mechanics.

“The Summer Institute on Nonlinear Dynamics is a model for collaboration between Sandia and UNM,” said Zayd Leseman, associate professor of mechanical engineering and one of the organizers of the institute. “UNM’s MTTC is pleased to be housing the institute and accommodating its experimental endeavors with its micro/nanofabrication facilities and laboratories.”

7-9-15-Abhaya Datye, Distinguished Regents Professor and department chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of New Mexico, will lead a webinar on his research on catalysts.

The webinar will be held July 15 at 9 a.m. MST.

The webinar will focus on research performed during collaborations between leading manufacturers in the automotive industry, the University of New Mexico, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and others on the development of advanced catalysis materials.

6-24-15-LoboScape, an installation featuring the latest visual arts technology, welcomes travelers as they exit the revolving doors leading from the terminals at the Albuquerque International Sunport to discover the University of New Mexico.

“On behalf of UNM, we are proud to be a part of your destination,” said President Robert G. Frank, “whether you are a first time visitor to the Land of Enchantment or returning home.”
Traditional advertising doesn’t allow for a meaningful expression about UNM that was necessary in a venue as distinctive as the Sunport.

UNM Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Cinnamon Blair said, “With the Sunport as a major entry into the city and the state, we need to create an ad that fits their aesthetic with a ‘you have arrived’ message,” she said.

“We do not want to just advertise, but create an experience. LoboScape represents and promotes UNM and the programs that created it.”

Blair and Marketing Director Argy Maniatis turned to the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) and the College of Fine Arts (CFA) because “they are in the design business.”

6-23-15-At the University of New Mexico, the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) senior design course is the last hurdle for ECE undergraduates before they complete their degree. Students must design and build a project in a team environment to specifications from a sponsor.

Teams frequently have commercial or private sponsors, which are interested in specific outcomes. This year ECE Lecturer Rich Compeau sponsored one team himself in order to get a smartphone app he thinks is long overdue on the UNM campus.

His team built a locator app so anyone on UNM’s sprawling campus can find their way without resorting to trying to see the tiny buildings on the paper maps the university currently supplies. ECE Senior Marcos Archuleta was the team project manager.

5-28-15-Vacation season is now upon us, and with the popularity of online review websites that give travelers a quick snapshot of hotel’s quality, making travel plans is as easy as ever. But can you really trust what you see there?

That’s what a team from the University of New Mexico’s Department of Computer Science sought to find out.

Abdullah Mueen, assistant professor of computer science, said the team was inspired to do research on the topic because of what they had personally noticed on various review sites like Hotels.com or TripAdvisor.com. In looking through reviews, Abdullah said they had noticed what they suspected to be fraudulent reviews, such as very similar reviews for the same hotel across different review sites or a lot of very positive or very negative reviews.

The team’s solution was to develop a cross-site analysis system called TrueView that provides a score that consumers can rely upon to be free of fraud. Instead of relying on just one review site, it aggregates the reviews to give a more accurate picture.

5-18-15-NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) has selected the University of New Mexico for a new cooperative agreement, which includes a three-year, $1.8 million grant, to manage the agency's “Swarmathon" challenge.

As part of the collaboration, Swarmathon aims to engage 1,000 students at 50 Minority Service Institutions (MSI) in cutting edge computer science and engineering research.
Swarmathon emerged from the collaboration between the research lab of Melanie Moses, UNM associate professor of Computer Science and NASA KSC Swamp Works. The collaboration builds on the Moses lab’s ant-inspired search algorithms, evolutionary simulations and iAnt swarm of cooperative robots, and NASA KSC Swamp Works’ physical robots and hardware innovations.

”Swarmathon will harness student creativity to solve difficult and complex problems,” said Moses. “This is an incredible opportunity for students to develop technologies to explore our world and beyond."

5-14-15-Md. Mottaleb Hossain, a doctoral student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the optical science and engineering program at the University of New Mexico, has won the 2015 IEEE Albuquerque Section Outstanding Graduate Engineering Student Award.

The award was presented at the IEEE Sigma Xi annual awards banquet on May 11 at the UNM Continuing Education building.

The award was given “for achieving excellence in scholarly research work on linear mode CMOS compatible p-n junction silicon avalanche photodiodes to be used in smart-lighting systems as well as for excellent leadership, communication and outreach skills in motivating youngsters in the field of engineering, especially in optical science and engineering.”

The Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards provide seed money for research by junior faculty at ORAU member institutions. The awards are intended to enrich the research and professional growth of young faculty and result in new funding opportunities.

5-13-15-Ron Lumia, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New Mexico, has received a Fulbright Scholar award for research and teaching in Thailand. It is second time he has received a Fulbright.

He will leave for Bangkok, Thailand, in August and return in May 2016, and will be working with Chulalongkorn University.

He will teach “Design for Manufacturability,” a course that he currently teaches at UNM. The course focuses on optimizing mechanical designs to minimize assembly time. For instance, Lumia said, finding a way to eliminate just one part of a product can yield great rewards in terms of time, reliability, and cost savings in its manufacture. A faculty member from Chulalongkorn University will attend the course, with the expectation that the professor can then teach the course to his or her students in the future.

The research part of the effort will involve exploration into what are known as Delta robots, which are small robots that have motorized rack-and-pinion arms that perform much like a marionette and are used for the “pick and place” manufacturing, where a part is moved from one place to another at a rate of two units per second.

5-12-15-The University of New Mexico’s Configurable Space Microsystems Innovations and Applications Center (COSMIAC) is preparing its third CubeSat — a small, cube-shaped satellite — for a space launch.

The project — called Scintillation Observations and Response of the Ionosphere to Electrodynamics (SORTIE) — will involve the launch of a CubeSat to collect data to study the ionospheric F-region.

Alonzo Vera, a scientist at COSMIAC and principal investigator for the project on the UNM side, said that the ionosphere affects radio signals including satellite communication and GPS — but that there are many aspects of it that are not understood.

5-11-15-The University of New Mexico School of Engineering held its spring 2015 Convocation ceremony Saturday, May 9 for students receiving undergraduate and graduate degrees from the school.

The ceremony took place at WisePies Area (the Pit). A total of 338 students were eligible to graduate, which includes 302 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral students for spring 2015, and 36 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral students for summer 2015.

5-1-15-The University of New Mexico School of Engineering is hosting its inaugural Senior Design Expo on May 8, which will feature projects from more than 200 students in the school.

The expo will be held 2-5 p.m. on the first floor of Centennial Engineering Center. Free food will be served, and free parking is available for participants in the B lot on the northwest corner of Central and University. See attached map.

4-30-15-The University of New Mexico School of Engineering is honoring its outstanding students, faculty and staff and its annual award luncheon on May 1.

Dean Joseph L. Cecchi will serve as master of ceremonies at the event. Awards will be given out at 10 a.m. the auditorium of the Centennial Engineering Center, then lunch will be served on the Centennial courtyard.

4-29-15-The University of New Mexico, the City of Albuquerque, and RWL Water were the hosts of the first Southwest Water & Energy Summit on April 22 that examined the challenges, solutions, and opportunities surrounding water issues.

The event was held in the Rotunda Room of the UNM Science & Technology Park, 801 University Blvd. SE, The room was filled to capacity, with about 160 attendees at the event.

The summit kicked off with comments by Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, UNM President Robert Frank, RWL Water President and CEO Henry Charrabé, messages from representatives from the offices of U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, U.S. Reps. Ben Ray Lujan and Steve Pierce, and a video message from U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

"This symposium highlights the important role of the research university like UNM, not only to educate the next generation of leaders but also to conduct research and create knowledge to help solve the problems faced by our society,” Frank said.

The meeting brought together 14 universities from New Mexico, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, and Colorado. About 350 students attended.

Among the events was a concrete canoe contest, in which student teams from the universities in attendance designed, built, and raced canoes constructed from concrete. The racing took place April 11 in Cochiti Lake in Sandoval County. Results of the contest can be found here

4-16-15-Two outstanding cancer researchers have been selected to receive the 2015 STC.UNM Innovation Fellow Award in recognition of their achievements as some of the University of New Mexico’s leading innovators.

Distinguished and Regents’ Professor and Sandia Fellow C. Jeffrey Brinker, and Professor and Cancer Center CEO Cheryl L. Willman have been selected for the award that will be presented April 20 at STC’s 2015 Innovation Awards Dinner.

The event also recognizes UNM faculty, staff and students who have received issued patents and registered copyrights/trademarks within the past year. In addition to receiving the Innovation Fellow Award, Willman will also receive an Innovation Award for an issued patent this year, and Brinker will receive an Innovation Award for four issued patents this year.

4-9-15-How do you excite high school students about the possibilities of computer programming? One way is to show the results. That’s why this group of students from Nex+Gen Academy in Albuquerque is in the basement of the University of New Mexico's Centennial Engineering Center watching iAnts.

The iAnts are tiny robots made from iPods, placed on wheels, and programmed to behave the way real ants do. They swarm around a lantern in the middle of a room that represents the nest. The bright light is used to help cameras on the iAnts locate the nest.

Paper QR codes scattered around the floor represent food. When one of the ants rolls over a code, it scans the code, returns to the nest and communicates with others to tell them of the find.

4-9-15-Norman Frederick Roderick, born October 24, 1940, died April 6, 2015, of natural causes.

Norman was born in McKeesport, Pa., in 1940. He graduated from the United States Air Force Academy and received his master’s and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan. He worked at the rocket test track at Holloman AFB, was a faculty member of the Department of Aeronautics at the U.S. Air Force Academy and was a faculty member of the Department of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Mexico for more than 30 years.

He was a senior member of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a member of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), a member of the American Physical Society (APS), and a fellow of IEEE. He had a long, successful career in research and consulting in the Air Force, UNM, Los Alamos National Laboratory and at Numberex, specializing in high-density plasma physics. He was blessed with a great life, family, friends and career.

4-7-15-Douglas Smith, president of NanoPore Inc., will be the featured speaker at the LoboNet CONNECT event on April 16.

The event will be held 5-7 p.m. at the UNM Faculty Club, 1923 Las Lomas. Appetizers and a cash bar will be available. The event is free, and no registration is required. Hourly parking is available at the Yale Garage.

Smith’s work at NanoPore focuses on the use of nanoporous materials for thermal and electrical insulation and adsorption cooling. He has 97 patents and is the lead inventor for both the NanoglassTM family of dielectrics and has created eight different nanotechnology-related ventures. Smith has been president of NanoPore since 1994. Previously, he was director of the NSF Center for Microengineered Ceramics and was a Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering at UNM.

4-1-15-Lyndsay Stapleton, an undergraduate student in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of New Mexico, has received a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation.

She was also selected as the department’s outstanding senior undergraduate award recipient for the annual School of Engineering awards.

Stapleton has worked for associate professor of chemical and biological engineering Heather Canavan over the past two years. Her research has yielded six presentations to date, and will result in two publications. In one of the publications she is lead author.

3-26-15-Thanks to the generosity of a local donor, two programs in the University of New Mexico School of Engineering will be better equipped to meet the needs of their students.

Marc Powell, owner of Albuquerque-based transportation company ReCARnation, is donating the use of two vehicles that will benefit two initiatives in the school: the Lobo MotorSports Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) team and outreach and research efforts led by the Center for Water and the Environment.

3-19-15- Research faculty members in the Center for Micro-Engineered Materials and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering will spend the next two years working to develop materials for a cheaper, more durable and stable electrocatalyst for fuel cells.

Alexey Serov, Plamen Atanassov, Kateryna Artyushkova and Ivana Gonzales from UNM will partner with Los Alamos National Laboratory, IRD Fuel Cells and Pajarito Powder, two private companies. Each partner will address a specific technical part of the alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells. This is a significantly different approach to the technology.

3-16-14-“An Introduction to Patents for Professors and Graduate Students” will be the title of a talk March 17, sponsored by STC.UNM, the University of New Mexico’s technology-transfer and economic-development office.

Nicholas P. Lanzatella, an attorney with Schwegman, Lundberg & Woessner in Minneapolis, will explain what a patent is and what it can do, why a professor or graduate student would want a patent, how to write an invention disclosure, and how to efficiently fit the activities needed to get a patent into the workflow of academic research.

The talk will be held noon-1 p.m. Tuesday, March 17 in Clark Hall, Room 214A. The seminar is free and open to the UNM community and the public, but registration is required. Lunch will be provided.

3-11-15-For the second year in a row, the University of New Mexico School of Engineering is sponsoring the Run Nerds Run! 5K and 1K race to raise funds for student scholarships. This year’s races will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 4 on the UNM campus. Registration for the races, as well as for those interested in volunteering, is now open at https://runsignup.com/Race/NM/Albuquerque/RunNerdsRun5k1k

One of the race’s founders is Jake Hollowell, who received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UNM in 2008 (UNM alumni Daniel Garcia, Brian Hesch, and Noel King are also race co-founders).

Jake now works for Vencore in Virginia, a company that does work for government agencies and large companies with a focus on systems engineering and integration, modeling and simulation, and enterprise information technology support.

He explains what the Run Nerds Run! race is and its importance to students.

3-10-15-The University of New Mexico’s School of Engineering overall graduate programs ranked No. 85 in the nation, according to the U.S. News & World Report magazine’s 2016 Best Graduate Schools rankings, released March 10.

3-2-15-Marshal Neel, cofounder of Main Street Crowd, will discuss how organizing local communities around entrepreneurial endeavors can increase awareness, promote sustainability of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and improve results, at an STC.UNM-sponsored talk this week.

Neel will speak from 8-9 a.m. March 4 at the UNM Science and Technology Park, 800 University Blvd. SE. Food will be served.

Neel is both a bank executive and an attorney and has a degree in human and community services. He will share his thoughts on how an understanding of human networks that support business development relates to the challenges faced by small business start-ups and existing businesses struggling to find capital.

2-26-15-Anil K. Prinja, professor and chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Mexico, has been selected to receive the American Nuclear Society’s Gerald C. Pomraning Award for 2015.

The Gerald C. Pomraning Memorial Award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding technical achievements in mathematics and computation. The award will be presented at the banquet of the Joint International Conference on Mathematics and Computation, Supercomputing in Nuclear Applications and the Monte Carlo Method. The conference will be held April 19-23 in Nashville, Tenn.

2-25-15-The monthly Science on Tap discussion will be held March 5 and will feature a presentation by author Loretta Hall called “Getting Men to the Moon: Behind the Scene Stories.”

The talk will be held 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Yanni’s, 3109 Central Ave. NE.

Nearly half a century ago, the world watched as seven Apollo missions over a four-year period took 21 men to the moon and back. Twelve of those men landed on the moon, explored it, and brought back samples of rocks and dirt. April 11, 2015, marks the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, in which an explosion aboard the spacecraft nearly doomed three astronauts. This presentation reveals insiders’ stories of what it took to overcome challenges and accomplish triumphs in the Apollo program and its predecessors, Mercury and Gemini.

2-24-15-Michael Dougher, vice president for Research, announced the appointment of Professor Plamen Atanassov as director of the University of New Mexico’s Center for Micro Engineered Materials (CMEM). The appointment was effective Jan. 1, 2015.

Atanassov, a Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, is an internationally-recognized expert on new materials and technology for electrochemical power sources. His research includes development of non-platinum electrocatalysts and nanostructured catalysts for fuel cells, advanced electro materials for batteries and biological fuel cells and the design for sensor systems.

2-24-15-Edl Schamiloglu, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico, has been recognized with the 2015 IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Society’s Pulsed Power Science and Technology Committee’s Peter Haas Award in recognition of his contributions to the field of pulsed power.

The Peter Haas Award recognizes individuals whose efforts, over an extended period, have greatly benefited the pulsed power field through the development of important applications or areas of activity, including research, education, and information exchange. The award is given biennially, with presentation in odd-numbered years at the IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference awards banquet. This year’s conference will be held May 31-June 4 in Austin, Texas.

2-19-15-STC.UNM, the University of New Mexico’s technology-transfer and economic-development office, is hosting its spring breakfast seminar series on Feb. 25. The featured speaker is Chad Person, co-founder and chief design officer at Seed Worthy.

The talk will be 8-9 a.m. in the auditorium of Building 800 of the UNM Science & Technology Park, 800 University Blvd. SE. He will speak on “Ship, Brand, and Take Your New Product to Market Faster: Launching the BowTie Platform.”

Free parking is available in the parking garage directly west of Building 800 at the corner of Basehart and Bradbury Drive.

Anderson joined the University of New Mexico in 1981 and taught in the chemical engineering program until he retired in 2006. He was responsible for developing courses in the area of semiconductor manufacturing that helped to broaden the chemical engineering curriculum at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

2-17-15-Les Johnson, NASA technologist and author of Going Interstellar, will give two talks on the University of New Mexico campus Feb. 19 and 20.

Johnson will speak at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 19 in Mechanical Engineering Building, Room 218, then sign copies of his books, which also include Rescue Mode, in the Mechanical Engineering Building Atrium at 6 p.m. Refreshments will be served. In Going Interstellar, Johnson describes methods that may one day enable us to travel to the stars.

On Feb. 20, at 3:30 p.m. in Mechanical Engineering Building, Room 218, Johnson will speak about the fundamentals of solar sailing, which is a rapidly-maturing, in-space propulsion technology that will soon be used to send small robotic spacecraft throughout the inner solar system. The talk will focus on the fundamentals of solar sailing, the state of the technology, near-term missions, and how future solar sails could one day take us to the stars.

2-11-15-LeAnn Adams Miller, senior manager with Sandia National Laboratories, will be the featured speaker at the LoboNet CONNECT event on Feb. 19.

The event will be held 5-7 p.m. at the UNM Faculty Club, 1923 Las Lomas. Appetizers and a cash bar will be available.

Miller has been with Sandia since 1986. She worked in nuclear facility accident analysis for 13 years, then transitioned to the enhanced decision-making group within the Computing Research Center. She is now a senior manager in the group, responsible for research and development in the areas of discrete mathematics, cognition, massively scalable analytics, and visualization. She also provides links between these areas and Sandia’s mission.

2-5-15-A consortium, which includes the University of New Mexico, is bidding for $110 million in federal funds for a new Integrated Photonics Institute for Manufacturing Innovation (IP-IMI). The consortium has advanced to the final round of competition, the Department of Defense announced recently.

The initiative is part of a national effort launched in 2013 to create a network of regional manufacturing institutes or “hubs” across the county that help bridge the gap between applied research and product development.

The mission is to establish a state-of-the-art hub focusing on the design, manufacture, testing, assembly and packaging of complex photonic integrated circuits that combine a variety of photonic and electronic components to achieve functionality.

2-3-15-For the second year in a row, the University of New Mexico School of Engineering is sponsoring the Run Nerds Run! 5K race to raise funds for student scholarships. This year’s race will be 8-9 a.m. Saturday, April 4 on the UNM campus.

The price is $25 per runner until March 6, with discounts offered for group registrations. Runners get a free T-shirt and a race pack with gifts donated from sponsors. Details can be found on the registration website.

2-2-15-The monthly Science on Tap discussion will be held Feb. 5 and will feature a presentation by Stephen Myers, a research scientist at SKInfrared in Albuquerque, who will present “Beyond Red: A History of Thermal Imaging.”

The event will be held 5:30-6:30 p.m. at Yanni’s, 3109 Central Ave. NE.

1-26-15-The New Mexico Society of Professional Engineers Albuquerque chapter will hold its Order of the Engineer induction ceremony Feb. 23. Nominations for induction into the society will be accepted through Feb. 6.

The induction ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. at the Centennial Engineering Center’s Robert J. Stamm Commons, Room 1044.

1-22-15-Over 100 elementary, middle and high school VEX Robotics students and their mentors from around Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Mescalero, Los Lunas, Las Cruces and Farmington, NM, will unite at the Centennial Engineering Center on the University of New Mexico (UNM) campus on February 7 for the VEX IQ and VEX Robotics competitions.

The action-packed tournament will feature more than 24 teams who will compete with and against other schools in a series of back-to-back robot challenges, made possible by the following sponsors: The Albert I. Pierce Foundation, Los Alamos Technical Associates, the Levitated Toy Factory, NASA, and UNM’s School of Engineering.

Participants will compete for the championship title by strategically executing the “Skyrise” game, driving robots they designed, built and programmed from the ground up using the VEX Robotics Design System.

1-20-15-“Projecting the Integrity and Confidentiality of Security Functions Through Provable Code Obfuscation” will be the topic explored Friday (January 23) by the newly-created Human-Centric Security Initiative at the University of New Mexico.

The speaker will be Adrian Chavez of Sandia National Laboratories. Chavez helped develop CodeSeal, a Sandia technology that provides a way to securely make software harder to interpret in a mathematically-provable way.

The talk will be 3-5 p.m. Friday in the Centennial Engineering Center, Room 1044.

1-15-15-Daniel Feezell, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico, has received a $500,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award.

Feezell said the basic thrust of the project is to develop arrays of blue and green vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with stable polarization of the light emission by using novel orientations of the semiconductor material gallium nitride (GaN).

He said the vertical geometry of VCSELs has several advantages over conventional edge-emitting lasers, including high beam quality, small form factor, the ability to form densely-packed arrays, and lower power consumption. Feezell’s work will focus on adding stable polarization and increasing the output power using arrays.